Episode 87 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is out with another “weekly” episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.
In this episode, we dive into the news that Jensen will be stepping back from Asphalt & Rubber, and why going out on April Fools Day was the only logical way to break the news.
It has been hard to make sense of the start of the 2022 MotoGP season. In the first three races, nine different riders filled the nine podium positions.
In Texas, we had our first repeat winner in Enea Bastianini, and Alex Rins repeated his podium from Argentina, while Jack Miller became the tenth rider to stand on the podium in four races.
In one respect, the 2022 season is picking up where 2021 left off. In 2021, MotoGP had eight different winners in 18 races, and 15 different riders on the podium.
The 2020 season before it had nine winners and 15 different riders on the podium from just 14 races, the season drastically shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Much of that variation can surely be ascribed to the absence of Marc Marquez as a competitive factor.
Despite the fact that almost the entire MotoGP grid started the year without a contract for 2023 and beyond, it has been extremely quiet on the contract front so far this year.
The only new contract announced was the unsurprising news that Pecco Bagnaia is to stay in the factory Ducati team for the next two seasons, with that contract announced between the Mandalika test and the season opener at Qatar.
The general feeling seems to be one of wanting to wait and see. An informal poll of team managers at the Sepang test suggest that they expected to wait until Mugello at the earliest to start thinking about next year.
At the moment, it seems likely that major moves will not be made until after the summer break.
Episode 271 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us looking at the Americas GP at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as the trio discusses MotoGP’s return to the Horsepower Rodeo.
Your favorite three-wheeled scooter is getting recalled with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as Piaggio Group Americas is recalling certain Piaggio MP3 500 HPE scooters from the 2020 and 2021 model years.
According to the recall documents, the brake hose terminal fittings zinc plating may contaminate the brake fluid on the MP3 500 HPE, thus decreasing brake performance. In total, 27 units are affected by this recall.
Additionally, the braking inefficiency is a consequence of an excessive stroke on the brake levers/pedal, and it occurs after an extended period of stop.
Over 900 units of the Triumph Speed Triple RR and Triumph Speed Triple RS (both model year 2022) are being recalled because the bolts that hold their rear brake disc bolts might become loose.
It has been a rough start to the 2022 MotoGP season. Qatar started relatively smoothly, but things started going downhill from there.
The Indonesian round at Mandalika barely scraped through, the newly resurfaced track already coming up in the final corner as the new asphalt had not had time to bed in.
Then two broken cargo aircraft suffered technical problems and left part of the freight stranded in Mombasa, Africa on its way to Argentina.
A hastily rescheduled two-day event at the Termas de Rio Honda followed, which came off surprisingly well. Then with a short turnaround getting the freight from Argentina to Texas, there was another problem with cargo planes breaking down, and freight arriving late.
Fortunately for the GP of the Americas at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, the delay was merely stressful rather than problematic.
Marc Marquez’s second bout of diplopia, or double vision, inside the space of six months has been resolved favorably. The Repsol Honda team today announced he would make his return in Austin, after being given the go ahead by his doctors.
The news was not a complete surprise. Marquez had posted earlier on Tuesday that he had been at Alcarras, riding a Honda CBR600RR, as a test of his eyesight.
Episode 270 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us looking at the Argentina GP at the Termas de Rio Hondo.
On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as the trio discusses MotoGP’s sole stop on the South American continent.
The Grand Prix of Argentina continues its proud tradition of weirdness, with Friday skipped and a day and a half of practice and qualifying crammed into Saturday.
The missing cargo, the result of not one but two planes breaking down between Mandalika and Termas de Rio Hondo, meant that Friday was canceled and the work of preparing for practice started around 2am on Saturday morning, as bikes and equipment were delivered up and down pit lane.
But, MotoGP as a whole pulled it off: apart from the weird schedule, practice and qualifying happened, and history was made.
It has been a busy day for everyone involved in MotoGP. A large section of the paddock was sat either behind a computer or staring at a mobile device frantically refreshing their flight tracker app of choice, watching the exploits of Aerostan aircraft EX-47001, as it finally made its way from Mombasa in Kenya to Lagos in Nigeria to Salvador in Brazil.
As I write this, it has taken off from Salvador and is winging its way to Tucuman, where it is due to land some time after 9pm. At Salvador, the flight number changed from BSC4042 to BSC4043.
A sign? I leave it up to the reader to decipher the letters BSC in the flight number.